To tell people that my twins are five?

[lukasiak]

Even though they technically don't turn five until November?

Dh is in a right hump about it. He thinks by me telling everybody that they are already five that it makes people place age inappropriate expectations on them. I think it's all just semantics, and those who actually need to know their real age know it. It's a bad habit I picked up from my mother, and my older children have survived me rounding their age up once their birthdays drew close with out being labelled as having additional needs, as seems to be DH's primary concern.

Is it really that big of a deal?

We have family abroad and instead of saying it's their 1st birthday they would say they are starting their second year so they are 2 . Their 12 year old daughter was so upset when I told her she was 12 not 13. İt was important because they just moved here and were going to start school. No amount of explaining would persuade them. The poor girl was hysterical. We lost contact after a while as they moved to another area. But I'm stil a bit wtf?

They weren't close family btw. More like cousins of cousins of cousins

Well it's very strange indeed how many posters here are saying their own mothers used to do this. I think this is ripe for a piece of psychological research....Maybe peeps who experience the urge to do this are a bit on the spectrum or some such 🧐

if you really struggle with '4 and a half' you could go with 'turning 5'

All your posts are extremely odd, op. You have many, many issues...

@Arealnumber what spectrum is that? Perhaps the, I am compulsively inaccurate spectrum? Are you on it?

It feels dismissive - as if their age is of no interest to you.
Would you say you are 10 stone when you are 9 and a half?

Putting them on ice and closing the gate is no different than a time out in their room, especially if we're already at the rink

It sort of is different, though, given that there is likely to be a difference of at least 20 degrees in temperature.

This is the total opposite of that post the other day, where the mum was asking aibu to lie that my kid is a couple days younger than 2, for a much cheaper entry to a theme park.

[quote Itisbetter]@Arealnumber what spectrum is that? Perhaps the, I am compulsively inaccurate spectrum? Are you on it?[/quote]
No I'm not! I think the OP's behaviour is inexplicable but if you care to read all the comments so many people here are saying that their mothers did the same. I presume you yourself are on the spectrum and that I've offended you. If that's the case I apologise. I am certainly no expert - I am not a psychologist but would be really interested to hear a psychologist's opinion on what type of thinking would lean towards this (clearly relatively common 🥴) type of compulsion.....that's all.

Ah, I hadn’t noticed who the OP was. The ‘skate or shiver’ one from the ‘is it okay to smack’ thread who bragged about hitting her children and how it worked for them because they’re well behaved. I imagine if one of them pipes up “I’m four, not five” they likely get a clip round the ear for challenging mummy.

I think you’ve misunderstood what age is?? When we say someone is 4, we mean they turned four in their last birthday and have been around for up to 364 days more. It’s shorthand for 4+. There’s no need to say how far past four they’ve gone and people understand that they haven’t got to 5 yet.+

This ^ I wouldn’t even say I was 35 even if I was 34 and my birthday was tomorrow. Why would you?? You could say, I’m almost 35, but you’re not 35.

Are you from a different culture OP, I’m not being rude I’m just wondering how you could grow up in Britain without a basic understanding of how age works.

I think I just count their ages up from there. They're two years (rounded) older than her, so I just add two years

Why would you add two years ? It's weird.

Op it's a good job your children don't have leap year birthdays 😂

Why on earth would you add a year on?! Particularly when when one child has their birthday in February, but the other only just had theirs 3 months earlier. Bizarre

The only time I talk about an age someone will be in future is when someone is turning a milestone eg "Dad will be 60 in December, we're organizing a big party which is why I'm talking about it in July " or in reference to children's ages when its relevent - "Oh DD hasn't started school yet, shes not 5 till November" or "I cant believe DD is so tall! She's already wearing age 9-10 trousers and shes not even 8 till November!"

I always use correct ages unless its maybe a week or so until a birthday. DD turned 12 last week, so if anyone asked her age four months ago I would have said "DD is 11" but from the start of July it would have been "DD turns 12 next week" and now it's "DD is 12, it was her birthday last week".

Yabu!

It is very odd. You'll be shooting your self in the foot with age related discounts when they turn round and say 'but you said I was 5'.

4, 4 and a half, nearly 5, just turned 5, depending on where in the year you are. And yeah, at such a young age there are expectations that children do or don't do certain things by age and people might question why the children aren't in school at 5. Of course, none of their business. But it's an avoidable scenario where you might be judged by your children's age.

Sound like your wishing them to be older op.

My friend does this with her dd, telling her, ‘grow up you’re 14 next year’(she’s not even 13 yet 😩.

It really pisses me off, I’m with your DH!

My friend does this with her dd, telling her, ‘grow up you’re 14 next year’(she’s not even 13 yet 😩.

Yup. My mum was physically and emotionally abusive to me for many years in childhood and teens. Changing my age to suit her was one of her weird little quirks. I remember when I was 9 she said “For GODs sake! We need to get rid of all of these ridiculous toys. You are almost grown up! You are all the woman you are ever going to be!” She’d been saying I wasn’t allowed toys from the age of 7.

She was a rounder upper too. Sometimes even before my birthday so I’d miraculously end up two years older.

One year, a week after my birthday she said, “You are FIFTEEN! In a few months, I could throw you out of here and say you’re SIXTEEN. Get on your own steam!”

I’d literally just turned thirteen.

Oddly, I wasn’t allowed to go away to university. I was “too young”. Even at 19.

She was a bit deranged like the OP

Our children have birthdays in November and I haven't added a year on. I'll probably start saying 'they're nearly x age' a few weeks before. Agree with dh

My DH is over a decade older than me. As soon as hes had a milestone birthday he starts saying we need to start thinking about my next milestone birthday (even though its years away!!😂😂) I think it makes him feel like I am catching him up in age!

There is something worrying about a woman with 5 children not understanding how age works.

Sounds like too much hard work for me, I'm lazy. I don't even do halfs.

DS is 5. Yeah his birthday is in a couple of weeks, but he's 5. The day of his birthday he will then be 6. All the way through till the night before his 7th birthday, when he will wake up and be 7.

Mind you even at the baby stage once we got to 3 months, I stuck to months. No halfs, then when he turned one, you got it. I moved on to years. No halfs, no nearly. Just bog standard 1,2,3,4,5.

But I'm lazy 😂

those who actually need to know their real age know it
So why are you adding on years for those who don't "need" to know? And which category are your poor kids in??